My Birthday Wish for the Dharma Bum Temple - Spring Fundraiser

Dear Friends, 

I hope this finds you safe and well during these challenging yet inspiring days! Many of us have experienced tremendous pain and loss over the last two years. At the same time stories of heroic proportion surround us daily to keep us motivated and inspired. For me, the Dharma Bum Temple is one of those inspiring stories and you make it all possible! 

Every Spring for my birthday it is an honor to humbly raise money for the Dharma Bum Temple. I am grateful the Dharma Bum Temple is open once again and each day we move closer to our normal schedule that we all know and love. While the physical doors to the Temple were closed 18 of the last 24 months, we did our best to build a virtual community as a way to gather. Now that we are open, we can expand our programs as we continue to meet both virtually and in-person. It is so important to provide a safe place of refuge for those who need it the most. The world is hurting right now and we must continue to come together and support each other. 

Almost all of our classes have returned to in-person while a few remain on Zoom for those who prefer to stay home or are simply not local. Many classes are both in-person and virtual providing an excellent opportunity for our now global Sangha. Our morning meditation Monday-Friday has returned to the Temple. Our weekly evening schedule continues with our Zen Buddhism class on Monday, Intro to Buddhism on Tuesday, Loving-Kindness Meditation on Wednesday, Dharma Bum Basics on Thursday and Tonglen Meditation on Sunday. The Recovery Sangha for those battling addiction has stayed strong with meetings on Saturday and Sunday mornings as well as Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The Homeless Hats Project: Knit and Sit is now a year-old and meeting weekly. This special group of volunteers has made over 600 beanies for people who live on the streets. Delta Beta Tau is our college outreach program and they are thriving gathering multiple times a week at SDSU for meditation, community service, guest speakers and retreats. They will also restart the Dharma Teens Program next semester. The Temple Garden Crew has been fantastic meeting every week as we continue to work on building a beautiful garden. The Family Sangha will return to the Temple May 14th and we look forward to the Day of Silence returning soon as well. The last two programs to return will be the Food Redistribution Program and the Prison Outreach Programs. We have just started to explore what these will look like moving forward and will keep you posted. As you can see, we have been incredibly busy and still touching thousands of lives. We feel blessed that we can build two Temples now, one in-person and the other virtually. 

We say everything we do at the Dharma Bum Temple is free and that is the truth. We do however have monthly expenses in addition to remaining building debt of $474,000. I hope you will consider making a donation of any amount to help us cover some of these costs. The Dharma Bum Temple is a 501(c)(3) NPO and all donations are 100% tax-deductible. 

WAYS TO DONATE: 

***You may donate here via our Facebook Fundraising Campaign as there are no fees: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2236991223123949/ 

***If you prefer to donate via the DBT website click here: https://www.thedharmabums.org/one-time-donation 

***Venmo @dharmabumtemple 

***Drop a check made out to Dharma Bum Temple in the donation box or mail to: 4144 Campus Avenue San Diego, CA 92103. 

I want to send a special thank you to all of our existing monthly donors, without you none of this is possible! We are truly touched by your support and hope you will consider a one-time donation for this fundraising campaign. 

As Co-Founder and CEO, it is an honor to be of service to this community. Thank you for all the love and support you have shown us Dharma Bums over the years. Our intention has always been to build a safe place to study and practice Buddhism while coming together as a community. I continue to be incredibly proud of everyone who works so hard to make this little Temple such a special place. Your continuous support is beautiful, deeply appreciated and I thank you! 

Yours in the Dharma,

Jeffrey Zlotnik

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